Open Letter To President Timothy Killeen, December 2, 2014

University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign

December 2, 2014
Dear Dr. Killeen,

As executive officers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, we would like to
congratulate you on your new position. We look forward to working with you to keep the
University of Illinois at the forefront of public research institutions of higher learning. We also
recognize, however, that you will be taking the helm of the university at an especially difficult and
crucial point in its history. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to address the
particular challenges presented by recent events on our own campus and steps that you might take
to help in healing divisions and moving both UIUC and the entire university system forward.

The recent words and actions of senior officials in connection with the decision to revoke an offer
of a tenured position in American Indian Studies to Dr. Steven Salaita have done genuine damage
to the university, and especially to the Urbana-Champaign campus, that remains largely
unrecognized outside of the affected units. The program in American Indian Studies has itself
obviously suffered the most as the result of the administration's actions, but the harm to other units
is also significant and ongoing. Representatives of the American Anthropological Association, the
American Comparative Literature Association, the American Historical Association, the American
Philosophical Association, the American Sociological Association, the American Studies
Association, and the Modern Languages Association, among others, have issued strongly worded
statements or letters critical of the university. More than 5,000 academics from across the country
and around the world have expressed their disapproval by boycotting UIUC. More than three-
dozen scheduled talks and multiple conferences across a variety of disciplines - including, for
example, this year's entire colloquium series in the Department of Philosophy - have already been
canceled, and more continue to be canceled, as outside speakers have withdrawn in response to the
university's handling of Dr. Salaita's case. The Department of English decided to postpone a
program review originally scheduled for spring 2015 in anticipation of being unable to find
qualified external examiners willing to come to campus. Tenure and promotion cases may be
affected as faculty at peer institutions consider extending the boycott to recommendation letters.

Most troubling of all, the ability of many departments to successfully conduct faculty searches,
especially at the senior level, has been seriously jeopardized. While the possible negative effects
on even junior searches remain to be seen, the Department of History has already abandoned a
previously authorized senior search in U.S. history this year in recognition of the bleak prospects
of attracting suitable applicants in the current climate. An open rank search in Philosophy attracted
80% fewer applicants at the rank of associate or full professor than a senior search in the same area
of specialization just last year. We have long been proud of the University of Illinois' ability to
maintain and extend its excellence through the recruitment of the very best scholars in the world.
In many disciplines, however, we cannot hope to recruit excellent senior faculty to this campus, or
to retain many of those already here, when they can no longer trust that this university will honor
the principles of faculty decision-making, free speech, and freedom to conduct research.

To date, the fallout from the Salaita decision has been felt most acutely in programs throughout
the humanities and social sciences, but even more widespread consequences for UIUC may also
be on the horizon. In advance of the final decision by the Board of Trustees not to approve Dr.
Salaita's appointment, the Associate Secretary of the American Association of University
Professors (AAUP), Dr. Anita Levy, sent a letter on behalf of that organization to Chancellor
Wise. The letter warned that "[a]borting an appointment in this manner without having
demonstrated cause has consistently been seen by the AAUP as tantamount to summary
dismissal, an action categorically inimical to academic freedom and due process." An
independent investigation of the Salaita case by the AAUP and a recommendation by its
Committee A on Academic Freedom to place UIUC on the "Censure List" of institutions where
"unsatisfactory conditions of academic freedom and tenure have been found to prevail" seems
increasingly likely. The harmful effects of a formal censure by the AAUP, a rebuke with very
few precedents for an institution of our size and stature, would be felt far more widely across
the entire campus than any of the current boycotts or the criticisms already registered by other
professional associations and individuals. As the next president of the University of Illinois, it is
imperative that you do everything possible to ensure UIUC's reputation and good standing
among major research universities.

The concerns raised by the university's handling of Dr. Salaita's case fall into two broad
categories: (1) concerns about academic freedom and free speech generally, and (2) concerns
about shared governance and well-established protocols for hiring, promotion, and tenure.

The first set of concerns extends well beyond possible infringements on Dr. Salaita's own
freedom of expression or academic freedom. In attempting to provide justification for the
decision to revoke the job offer to Dr. Salaita, Chancellor Wise and the Board of Trustees,
joined by President Easter, among other university officials, issued statements on academic
freedom that were both expansive and troubling. Chancellor Wise's statement, originally sent as
a massmail to the university community, included the following paragraph:

What we cannot and will not tolerate at the University of Illinois are personal and
disrespectful words or actions that demean and abuse either viewpoints
themselves or those who express them. We have a particular duty to our students
to ensure that they live in a community of scholarship that challenges their
assumptions about the world but that also respects their rights as individuals.

The Board of Trustees and President Easter went even further in their own massmail, which
followed immediately upon that of Chancellor Wise. In it, they wrote:

The University of Illinois must shape men and women who will contribute as
citizens in a diverse and multicultural democracy. To succeed in this mission,
we must constantly reinforce our expectation of a university community that
values civility as much as scholarship. Disrespectful and demeaning speech that
promotes malice is not an acceptable form of civil argument . . . There can be no
place for that in our democracy, and therefore, there will be no place for it in our
university.

On their face, such sweeping claims are directly at odds with the AAUP's own declarations on
academic freedom, to which the University of Illinois professes to subscribe. The statements in
these massmails from senior university leaders make no distinction between the context of Dr.
Salaita's termination and university policy toward prospective hires or current employees. Nor

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do these statements distinguish between extramural and professional contexts. Unqualified
proclamations to the effect that "we will not tolerate . . . disrespectful words or actions that
demean and abuse either viewpoints themselves [sic] or those who express them" or that "there
will be no place ... in our university" for allegedly objectionable speech raise the chilling
prospect of new restrictions on the free expression of all university employees in the name of
"civility."

We certainly agree that university employees should, to paraphrase the AAUP's "1940
Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure," remember their special obligations
to be accurate, to exercise appropriate restraint, to show respect for others' opinions, and to
make it clear that they speak as individuals and not for either their institution or their profession
at large. When members of the university community fail to fulfill these obligations, it is
entirely appropriate for administrators to attempt to distance the institution from any offending
statements and to reemphasize the values of tolerance, inclusion, and civility. But university
employees must ultimately remain free from the threat of either institutional censorship or
discipline for the exercise of free speech.

Beyond raising serious concerns about academic freedom and free speech, the decision to
revoke Dr. Salaita's offer of employment clearly violated fundamental principles of shared
governance and long-established protocols at UIUC related to hiring, promotion, and tenure. An
offer of a tenured appointment at the university comes only at the end of a long and thorough
process. It involves soliciting external letters of evaluation from recognized experts in the
relevant field and reviews at multiple levels by committees constituted for precisely this
purpose. After being identified as the best candidate in a national search, Dr. Salaita's tenure
file was reviewed and approved first by a committee from his proposed home unit, American
Indian Studies, and subsequently by separate committees at the level of both the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) and the entire UIUC campus. The latter committee in Dr.
Salaita's own case notably included the chair of the campus committee on promotion and
tenure, the dean of the graduate college, the provost, the vice chancellor for research, and even
Chancellor Wise herself. At every level of review, the appointment met with approval.

In stark contrast to this rigorous process of academic review, the initial decision not to forward
Dr. Salaita's appointment to the Board of Trustees was taken without consulting relevant faculty
and academic officials in the university regarding the merits of the case. Respect for the
expertise and judgment of academic officials, and especially of relevant disciplinary faculty, in
assessing the qualifications of candidates for academic positions or promotions is a pillar of
shared governance. And yet not a single faculty member in American Indian Studies or official
in the LAS Dean's Office was made aware of the decision to revoke the offer to Dr. Salaita, or
even that such an option was under consideration, until after Chancellor Wise had sent him a
letter on August 1 announcing it. Despite repeated expressions of regret at her acknowledged
lack of proper consultation, Chancellor Wise also made no effort to correct this serious failure at
any time prior to the September 1 1 meeting of the Board of Trustees, at which both she and
President Easter urged the Board to formally reject Dr. Salaita's appointment.

We the undersigned executive officers believe deeply in the mission of the University of Illinois
and in the integrity of its faculty. As scholars and as leaders, we also believe in the principles of
free academic speech, and in a shared process of academic decision-making. We ask you as the
next president of this university to demonstrate your own belief in these same ideals by explicitly
and emphatically reaffirming the university's commitment to an understanding of academic

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freedom and free speech that accords with AAUP policy statements on the subject, and to
fundamental principles of shared governance, including the need for academic appointments to be
made in consultation with relevant academic officials and on the basis of academic qualifications.
Such actions on your part would help send a strong message to our concerned colleagues across
the nation and around the world that the University of Illinois remains committed to the values
that help define a distinguished institution of higher learning.

Sincerely,

Matthew Ando, Chair, Department of Mathematics

Ronald Bailey, Head, Department of African American Studies

Thomas Bassett, Director, LAS Global Studies

Merle Bowen, Director, Center for African Studies

Matti Bunzl, Director, Program in Jewish Culture and Society

Antoinette Burton, Interim Head, Department of Sociology

David Cooper, Director, Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center

Jane Desmond, Director, International Forum for US Studies

Stephanie Foote, Chair, Department of Gender & Women's Studies

Gregory Girolami, Head, Department of Chemistry

Dara Goldman, Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Dianne Harris Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities
Valerie Hoffman, Director, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Jonathan Inda, Chair, Department of Latina/Latino Studies
Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, Head, Department of Theatre

Lily a Kaganovsky, Director, Program in Comparative and World Literature
Marcus Keller, Head, Department of French and Italian
Diane Koenker, Chair, Department of History

Edward Kolodziej, Director, Center for Global Studies and Program in Arms Control,

Disarmament, and International Security
Susan Koshy, Director, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Sara McLafferty, Head, Geography & Geographic Information Science
Jean-Philippe Mathy, Director, School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics
Andrew Orta, Head, Department of Anthropology
David Price, Head, Department of Religion

Junaid Rana, Acting Head, Department of Asian American Studies

Jesse Ribot, Director, Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy Initiative

Michael Rothberg, Head, Department of English

D. Fairchild Ruggles, Interim Head, Department of Landscape Architecture

Kirk Sanders, Chair, Department of Philosophy

Douglas Simpson, Chair, Department of Statistics

Anna Westerstahl Stenport, Director, European Union Center

Robert Warrior, Director, American Indian Studies Program

Charles Wright, Director, Program in Medieval Studies

Gary Xu, Head, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

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